Tuesday Nov 3 12:30am (Nairobi time)

Tuesday 11/3 @ 12:30am in Nairobi, Kenya (11/2 at 3:30pm CST)

Well, we made it to Africa (words I never expected myself to say a couple years ago).  The flight was very smooth into Nairobi and we managed our way through the many, many lines and the traffic issues, but now we are here in our Nairobi, Kenya hotel.  We got in about 11:30pm local time (2:30pm CST) so I typed this up, but I had to wait to send it to try to reduce my wireless internet bill… it’s pretty steep at this place; I could do an hour for about $13 U.S. bucks or 24 hours for about $26 U.S. bucks – either way it’s pretty crazy.  So I’m trying to maximize my time… tonight I’ll just do an hour’s worth, but need to wait because I want to use the biggest chunk of that skypin’ with my fam.

By the time I send this (about 4pm your time), I will have slept for 1 hour (little bit here & there on the last plane ride) out of the last 34 hours (woke up at 6am Sunday morning).  Once I sign-off here tonight, though, I can sleep in and then I should be pretty much on African time and can get into the flow a bit.

My initial impression of Nairobi was that it looked like any other metro city in terms of the airport and the buildings as we started off driving toward the hotel.  The initial obvious difference was all the people wanting to help you with everything – give you rides, carry your bags, etc – for a tip.  I had four things:  a laptop, backpack, suitcase, and suitcase full of gifts for the sponsored kids.  Before I knew it my bags were being taken by everyone (this was the case for all of us); luckily Homer stopped the guy who was taking my laptop – Homer wasn’t sure if the guy was going to pack it in the van or take it; I held on to the laptop on the van ride to the hotel.  Like I said, other than people driving on the left side of the road (and crazy), the start of the ride was fairly uneventful; we were all packed in real tight, but the surroundings were not overly unfamiliar (large building, signs in English, etc).  As we got 15-20 minutes away from the airport, though, the pavement turned to dirt (road construction we think), and we were driving through really tough stuff in brutal traffic with people cutting us off all over the place.  At one point our driver slowed way down to get over a huge dip; when the rear tires went in the dip I had a moment of wondering if we’d climb out o fit.  During this time, we saw glimpses of another side of Nairobi…. There were shacks and makeshift lean-tos; there were a number of people walking the sides of the dirt road we were on;  etc.  Then, sort of bizarrely out of nowhere came our hotel which is really quite nice – it’s just weird in sort of an ‘oasis in the desert’ sort of weird; “one of these things is not like the other.”

So, here we are, with most modern conveniences, settling in for the night.  Mark Radeke is already asleep behind me (snoring) and I’d bet even money that Mr. Jonsson & Mr. Holm are close if not sleeping already as well in their room.  Me, I need to wait until 12:30am for my kids & bride to get home from school so I can talk with them!  It’s a bizarre feeling looking out at the African nighttime thinking my kids are still sitting in a classroom (in hopefully sunshine).

It’s about 68 degrees here, which is quite typical.  We are excited for tomorrow as we can catch up on sleep, check the place out a bit more, get to meet more of the other crew (we’ve met several already), and then tomorrow night start our formal orientation & learning.  We are all very excited and so grateful for your support.  We can’t wait to share the experiences when we get back.

Day 1: Amsterdam Airport

Hey y’all, flight here went smooth.  It’s about 1:10am Central time, about 8:10 here in Amsterdam.  I spent a good chunk of the time reading “Bearing the Cross” which is a long book about the life & times of Martin Luther King, Jr.  I’m fascinated with how movements get started and interested to see what I can apply to Our Response. 

In 1956, King was speaking in San Francisco at the NAACP National Convention and denounced “an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.”  And I thought about what we are doing is fighting the same system that still exists… as I drank the pop & water they gave me, ate the peanuts, then supper, then breakfast they fed me while having my own personal TV in front of me to entertain me while I flew.  What an interesting thing to reconcile as I’m flying to 3rd world Africa.

Another interesting pieces is that at the end of 1956, the 382 day boycott of the busses in Montgomery ended (what started as a one-day boycott), they had achieved their goal of “reasonable segregation” but actually saw bus segregation totally abolished in Montgomery.  But King was clear that the real goal was not to defeat the white man, but “to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority… the end is reconcilation; the end is redeption; the end is the creation of the beloved community” where all men would treat each other as brothers and equals.  And there is consistency with what we are doing in that as well.  It’s about an awakening of the injustice in this world rather than the fight against a specific individual or group.

Well, I’d best get going.  Thanks for your support… hopefully will connect again when we get to Nairobi, Kenya.  Thanks for all your encouragement.